ant years. Her splendid
eloquence, always at our service, has seldom been matched, and has never
been surpassed by any of the innumerable speakers of the movement. She
had, when she joined us, an assured position amongst the working-class
Radicals in London and throughout the country; and through her Socialism
obtained a sympathetic hearing in places where less trusted speakers
would have been neglected. She was not then either a political thinker
or an effective worker on committees, but she possessed the power of
expressing the ideas of other people far better than their originators,
and she had at her command a certain amount of political machinery--such
as an office at 63 Fleet Street, and a monthly magazine, "Our
Corner"--which was very useful. Her departure was a serious loss, but it
came at a moment of rapid expansion, so rapid that her absence was
scarcely felt.

* * * * *

On the Society itself the effect of the Essays and the Lancashire
Campaign was considerable. As the Executive Committee report in April,
1891: "During the past year the Socialist movement has made conspicuous
progress in every respect, and a constantly increasing share of the work
of its organisation and extension has fallen to the Fabian Society." The
membership increased from 173 to 361, and the subscription list--thanks
in part to several large donations--from L126 to L520. Local Fabian
Societies had been formed at Belfast, Birmingham, Bombay, Bristol,
Huddersfield, Hyde, Leeds, Manchester, Oldham, Plymouth, Tyneside, and
Wolverhampton, with a total membership of 350 or 400. The business in
tracts had been enormous. Ten new tracts, four pamphlets and six
leaflets, were published, and new editions of all but one of the old
ones had been printed. In all 335,000 tracts were printed and 98,349
distributed. The new tracts include "The Workers' Political Programme,"
"The New Reform Bill," "English Progress Towards Social Democracy," "The
Reform of Poor Law," and a leaflet, No. 13, "What Socialism Is," which
has been in circulation ever since. It should be added that at this
period our leaflets were given away freely, a form of propaganda which
soon proved too expensive for our resources.

In March, 1891, just before the end of the official year, appeared the
first number of "Fabian News," the monthly organ of the Society, which
has continued ever since. It replaced the printed circulars previously
issued to the